Geospatial vector features are commonly used data objects in Geospatial Information Systems (GIS). Vector Features are one way of representing real world geographic objects (e.g., roads, buildings, cities, sea buoys, etc.). Vector features are comprised of one or more geometric elements (e.g., points, lines, and polygons) which describe the shape and location of the real world geographic object and include a set of attributes which provide the distinguishing characteristics of the geographic object (e.g., name, description, etc.). Vector feature datasets are often updated regularly and there is a need to ensure those updates are propagated to all users of the dataset.
Generally, distributed updates are done by resending the entire dataset to users either via the Internet or via physical shipment. Resending the entire dataset is problematic when the dataset is large and there is a need for timely updates. Often users do not have the internet bandwidth to support full dataset downloads and physical shipment times can be lengthy, especially when users are widely distributed around the world.